


Last Chance

by rainbowshoes



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Dark Tony Stark, Even from itself, M/M, Memory Suppressing Machine | The Chair (Marvel), Non-Linear Narrative, Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Tony wants to save the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 11:29:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18051677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowshoes/pseuds/rainbowshoes
Summary: “Last chance, Rogers,” Tony said, holding out a newly printed copy of the amended accords...“No, Tony,” Steve said, shaking his head. “I can't sign something like that. I don't agree with it.”For the Tony Stark Bingo 2019R4: Last Chance





	Last Chance

Steve slumped down to the cracked concrete, his face bruised and bloody, his uniform - basic black tac gear, these days - ripped in various places, and defeat causing his shoulders to slump. He looked up at Bucky with big, wounded eyes. James walked around him and wrenched his arms behind his back, locking the super reinforced mag-cuffs in place around his wrists. 

“Why, Buck?” Steve asked, so broken, so disappointed.

“I could ask you the same,” James said mildly. He hauled Steve to his feet. There were a cluster of other enhanced people near the quinjet waiting for them to board. James hadn't been the only one to fight today, but he'd asked to bring Steve down alone. They'd backed off at his signal, letting Steve think he was winning. It was clear now, more so than it probably had been before, that Steve was painfully outmatched. 

James gave Steve a hard shove to the middle of his back to get him moving. Tony wasn't here for this, but that was okay. James knew he was watching.

* * *

 

Sam had been the last to go. He'd stayed by Steve's side, his stalwart companion through thick and thin - and things had been very, very thin for them lately. He didn't complain, much, but he knew he was done for when he'd been notified that his veterans benefits had been stripped away. He'd stuck by Steve, anyway, but then there'd been the mess in Brussels, and, well. He hadn't been able to talk his way out of that one. 

Before Sam, it was Clint. One day he was there, the next he was gone. He'd had a rough go of it from the start, always angry, always bitter. He'd hated their lot. He'd hated how they didn't have any useful resources, how they had to beg or cheat or steal for every scrap of food. He'd become morose once he found out Laura had divorced him and he now had no legal right to his kids. He'd vanished in the night one night, and no one they knew had heard from him since. 

Wanda was there with them for a while, but she had a habit of sneaking off anyway to go see Vision. If Steve hadn't been there when Professor Xavier and a few others had come to take her away, he'd have thought she left to go be with Vision, her belief in him and their cause - their fight for justice against the accords - be damned. But he'd watched them bully her onto their jet, and he'd hoped for the best for her.

Scott had been arrested almost immediately after the fight at the airport. Steve didn't know the guy was a felon. He'd seemed nice enough, after all. He hoped Scott wasn't suffering too much, that he at least got to write to that daughter he'd mentioned. But he didn't know him, and he didn't worry about him.

Natasha had never really been on their side. She'd recognized the danger more winter soldiers presented, though, and she'd let them leave. Steve hoped Tony hadn't held that against her. He doubted it, though. Tony seemed to have a grudge against everyone. 

He'd taken Bucky from him, after all.

* * *

 

James looked down at the scene below. From up here, it was hard to make out exactly who was who. There was a mass of people on the street, and there were so many people up on the stage that locating the one he needed was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. 

Only, instead of a magnet, he had a high-powered rifle scope. 

He shifted his head to the side and nudged the barrel of the gun by a hair's breadth. There. His target. Tony was too close, dammit. He knew that was going to be one of the major factors of this job, but still. He didn't like it. He waited a moment more, silently willing Tony to move out of the way. He didn't. 

James pulled the trigger anyway. 

The screams from the street were loud even from up here.

He wasted no time, disassembling the rifle and stowing it in the special case Tony had designed. The building he'd broken into was still under construction, still empty, and had no working CCTV cameras. It was a goldmine of opportunity. He didn't waste time, though. He knew cops would flood the area in just a few minutes looking for the shooter, and he didn't want to stick around for that. He paused at the exit to shrug into the big hoodie and to shuck his gloves, to peel away the mask and goggles. Everything went into the case, and he seamlessly joined the panicked crowd. 

News vans were already reporting the story of how the biggest rival to Stark Industries had been murdered while standing just two feet from Tony Stark himself, his brains splattered all over the billionaire. It was slightly less sensational than that - but only slightly. James watched as the ambulance carrying Tony sped away from the crowd, headed for the nearest hospital. Tony was damn good at pretending to be in shock. 

That was one less rival for Stark Industries, though, and James was satisfied. Tony's plans could continue, now, and soon, he'd utterly dominate the world stage in green energy. 

A new day was dawning for planet Earth. Tony Stark was damned determined to make sure this shitty piece of floating rock in space wasn't going to wind up like Mars, regardless of how anyone else felt about it. James could only take some small measure of pride in helping to further the cause.

* * *

 

“It's not like the chair your used to,” Tony explained, even as James panicked and tried to fight his way out of the restraints. “Compared to what HYDRA did to you, this won't hurt at all. I mean, it hurts, don't get me wrong, but - well, you don't believe me.” Tony walked over to the control panel. “I'll explain after I'm done, hm?” He smiled, just a bit, and hit the button.

James didn't scream. He went tense all over and he didn't breathe for the entire thirty seconds, but he didn't scream. Tony ended the cycle of electricity and immediately hit another button to release the restraints holding James to the chair. James rolled out of it, still a little disoriented, and he staggered a few steps away. 

“There, you see?” Tony asked with a grin. “I didn't take all your memories like HYDRA used to. Think of this as… a booster shot. Sometimes, you start asking questions that I really just can't answer. Instead of risking you feeling uncomfortable here with me and ruining all this amazing progress we've made together, I just reset the clock a bit. You don't remember all those things you aren't supposed to ask about, and I don't have to worry about you betraying me. It's a win-win.” 

James gave him a flat look. “How many times have you done this?”

Tony laughed. “You ask that every time, you know?” Tony shook his head and waved James off. “This was the third time, and it's taken longer and longer each time.”

James looked surprised by that. “Longer?”

“It's like you trust me or something,” Tony said with a slow smile. “Now, come on. I know you have a raging headache, and I have just the thing.”

* * *

 

“But what about Steve?” James asked, insisting now that Tony wasn't giving him a real answer. 

Sighing in frustration, Tony turned to look at him. “He's running around the globe trying to do what he thinks is the right thing, like fucking always, and he's just making a fucking mess of everything. He and his little boy band nearly leveled a small town in Taiwan! That's what Steve is doing. Now drop it.”

“Why does he think it's so important, what he's doing?” James couldn't just  _ drop it _ . This was  _ Steve _ . 

“You'd have to ask Rogers,” Tony said flatly. “I wouldn't know his reasons for anything he does.” James noticed the way Tony covered the arc reactor with his hand. “He thinks the people he's going after are the bad guys, is my guess. No clue where he's getting that intel, though, or how dated it is, considering  _ I fucking did that for him _ when he lived here. So now he's doing what he does best. He's going in a fucking shit up and leaving the mess for someone else to clean.”

“What did those people do?” James pressed.

“I don't know!” Tony exploded.

James let the matter die.

* * *

 

James had been living with Tony for nearly six months. It was… nice. He was free of the code words. He'd signed the accords. Tony asked very little of him, if anything at all. There were no expectations. And when James had gone to Tony, asking shyly to be called James rather than Bucky, Tony had consented immediately, and while Tony continued to use his ridiculous nicknames,  _ James _ was peppered in far more often than Barnes had been, and more than the altogether non-existent Bucky. 

“What do you want, Tony?” James had asked one day while they were sitting in the workshop.

Tony paused and turned to look at James. He gave James his full attention. After a long moment, he smiled. “I want to save the world. I want to save it from anyone who would destroy it - even those who don't realize that's what they're doing.”

“What do you mean?” James frowned. 

“Take the green energy movement for example,” To y said. “We are killing this planet, not slowly, but surely. We're sucking up all the non-renewable resources and polluting the oceans and the atmosphere. So the green energy movement was born to counter some of those effects. With the arc reactor technology and everything else I've designed lately, we could fight that pollution in a lot more ways. But people are greedy and backwards and stupid, and they don't want to change. I need them to change, even though they don't want to, and I need to get rid of those who stand in my way.”

James thought about that for almost a week. He did his own research, found his own answers, discovered just how right Tony was. Then he went back to Tony. 

“I want to help,” James said seriously. 

“I thought you'd never ask,” Tony said with a slow, dark smile.

* * *

 

Tony smirked as the quinjet opened and Barnes stepped out with his singular Dora Milaje guard just a step behind. “Welcome to Casa Stark. Make yourself comfortable.”

Barnes looked wary and tense as he examined the workshop around them. He held himself very carefully, like he was afraid he'd break something just by breathing on it. It was cute. 

“Thanks for bringing him,” Tony said. Okoye nodded. “What do I owe King Kitty for this favor, hm?”

“He appreciates your effort in amending the accords,” Okoye said. “He considers this repayment of that favor. He asks that you don't bring anymore problems to Wakanda for the foreseeable future. He has grown quite tired of cleaning up your mess.”

“It's not my mess,” Tony said with a shrug. Okoye gave him a narrow-eyed look. “I understand the feeling, okay? I'll keep Barnes here out of his hair. Want a drink before you go?” Tony held up a bottle of priceless scotch and swirled the last quarter of the bottle around the insides. 

“No,” Okoye said. “I'd rather return home.” She glanced at Barnes for a moment, then sighed. “Princess Shuri sends her regards. She said to expect her to drop in at some point.”

“Tell the little princess I look forward to it,” Tony said cheerfully. “I can't wait to see how that big brain of hers looks in action.” He laughed at Okoye's sour expression. “Tell King T'Challa they're both welcome to drop in anytime.” She nodded then retreated to the quinjet. She'd fly it out to wherever she'd stashed her own, and then the quinjet would fly back to him, empty. 

Tony poured himself another drink and stared at Barnes for a long moment. He looked uncomfortable, but he also didn't look like he was willing to ask what was going on. “I have a nifty little toy I designed that should clear up that problem you have with a certain series of Russian words.” Barnes went stiff from, what Tony thought, was shock. “But before I'll agree to do that for you, I need you to sit down and read the accords.” 

“Only read them?” Barnes asked suspiciously.

“Ideally, you'll agree to the terms and sign the dotted line, but I won't force you to do that. That's not what they're for. Essentially, by signing, you agree that you are an enhanced individual and you now have the backing of a hundred and forty two countries that agree that you are equipped to deal with threats the military and police force aren't equipped to handle. They agree to spend the money fixing any damages that might occur from you doing your thing, but only if you get permission first. It's pretty simple to get permission. Just call in the threat. You'll get pushed through immediately to someone who is capable of determining if you are the sort of person who needs to handle it, or if the police really could do the job. It's like sending the full force of the military after a purse snatcher. That sort of thing. You get the green light in about two minutes, give or take, and everyone at the UN headquarters gets a sitrep. Win-win. 

“If you don't sign, no biggie, but you can't go out there and fight bad guys, either, short of an actual world-ending disaster. There is no forced  _ retirement _ , you just don't get to play on the playground. Those who have secret identities don't have to reveal who they really are, either. The accords apply to the super-hero persona only, since we all work under the assumption that, say, Spiderman, isn't going to go busting balls without his mask. Or Daredevil. Or anyone else who wears a mask. It's - yeah, it's a registry, but mostly just so the council knows who they're actually paying damages for and so some punk kid who just found out he has superpowers can't go stop a bank robbery, blow the building to bits, and then leave it for someone else to clean up with no consequences. We take responsibility for our actions.” Tony stopped and took a drink, looked at Barnes expression.

“That's -” Barnes chewed on his lip for a moment. “That's not what Steve said it was.” He's quiet, uncertain.

“FRI?” Tony asked. 

“Yes, boss?” 

“Get a copy of the accords up for Barnes here to read. Explain anything and answer all his questions about them.” Tony turned on his heel. “Come on. I'll show you to your room.”

Barnes followed silently. At least he didn't argue with literally everything Tony had to say like his bestie. Tony could live with that.

* * *

 

“Last chance, Rogers,” Tony said, holding out a newly printed copy of the amended accords he'd spent the last year and a half slaving over - alone. “Read and sign, and all this goes away. You guys get to come home. Barnes gets the treatment he needs. Wanda and Vision can stop sneaking around like a couple of grounded teenagers. Sam can go back to working at the VA. Clint can go back to his wife and kids. You can get back the shield and become Captain America again.”

“No, Tony,” Steve said, shaking his head. “I can't sign something like that. I don't agree with it.”

“Fine,” Tony said. He wasn't going to argue. He turned on his heel and left the room they'd chosen for this little meetup. He was done. Let Rogers do things the hard way.

* * *

 

Tony stepped up to the podium in front of a sea of reporters and flashing cameras. He held up his hands and the room fell silent. “I know you've all heard the rumors about Captain America returning to to the stage.” He paused dramatically. “I'm here to tell you all today that these rumors are…” he paused again and enjoyed the way everyone was about to vibrate out of their chairs. “True!” He lifted his hand to gesture at the far edge of the raised “stage.” James, decked out in a newly redesigned Captain America uniform, sans cowl, walked out with a small smile on his face. “Meet James Barnes, everyone. He'll be taking up the cowl, and the shield, as the new Captain America!”

The press lost their collective minds, and Tony smiled brightly for them and for James. 


End file.
